SIS Creative Writing and Translation Listed in First Batch of National-level First-Class Undergraduate Courses

      According to the result announced by the Ministry of Education on the first batch of national-level first-class undergraduate courses, among 3560 courses selected, Creative Writing and Translation, SIS selective course for English major students, was listed.

(Group photo of teachers and students of the 2019 Creative Writing and Translation course and invited writers of the writing camp. Taken after the literary works reading on Zhuhai Campus, SYSU.)

      Led by Professor Dai Fan and co-led by Dr. Luo Bin, Dr. Su Pin, Dr. Fan Ruoen and Dr. Xie Guixia, Creative Writing and Translation is open for Year Four undergraduate students and graduate students. The course is also supported by the writers’ writing camp in SYSU each year, which invites eight writers from eight countries to stay in China for 28-day creation and literature and culture exchanges. From 2015 to 2017, students worked as volunteers of the writing camp, providing translation services and holding interviews with the writers. Since 2018, students can register for the course to join the camp, in which they can translate the writers’ works, ask questions about literary writing, and provide interpreting services for international writers in exchanges with local literature, education and art institutions. About three quarters of the course time is spent out of the Zhuhai campus, providing students with great practice opportunities in translation, interpreting and interview. Past activities include the visits to Yangshuo Middle School, terrance in Yuanyang and the poverty-alleviation project in Azheke village, and exchanges and Writers’ Readings in Guangxi Normal University. While broadening students’ cultural horizon, Creative Writing and Translation also offers students an immerse environment for practicing English. Students can experience cross-cultural communication and raise cultural difference awareness through their writing and communications in the writing camp. This also helps to lay a foundation for Chinese culture to go global in the future.

(Teachers and students of the 2019 Creative Writing and Translation course and the invited writers having exchanges with their counterparts in Kafang Primary School in Gejiu, Yunnan.)

(Teachers and students of the 2019 Creative Writing and Translation course and the invited writers visiting the terraces field and communicating with the villagers in Azheke, Yunnan.)

(Due to the pandemic, the 2020 Creative Writing and Translation was launched on Zhuhai Campus, SYSU without the participation of international writers. Teachers and students of the course visited the Guangzhou headquarters of Agile Property to experience the creativity and culture of the industry. Here is a photo taken there.)

Feedback from the Students

Shi Yancong (Year one, graduate)

The writing camp provided us a great platform, through which we could not only communicate with writers about the translations face to face, but also learn translation skills from the teaching team. This enabled us to polish up our translation works while remaining faithful to the original authors as much as possible. I think that’s what makes the camp unique.

Yang Junhui (Year Four, undergraduate)

This course taught me communication skills and a new and positive attitude toward different cultures. These are things that I can hardly gain from the traditional class.

Fu Si (Year one, graduate)

With a sense of responsibility to the text, the author and the readers, never had I been so devoted to translation before. In the writing camp, we held readings. When reading their works, the authors also showed the audience the translation version translated by students. It was both a recognition and an appreciation, making us feel important and be more aware of our responsibility to both the original and target texts.

(Professor Dai Fan explaining upcoming work to some of the students of the 2019 Creative Writing and Translation course in Gejiu, Yunnan.)

(British writer Abigail Parry and New Zealand writer Damien Wilkins having a translation workshop with students of the 2019 Creative Writing and Translation course in Yangshuo, Guangxi.)

(Teachers and students of the 2019 Creative Writing and Translation course together with the invited writers visiting the Yangshuo Park in Guangxi and participating in activities such as singing folk songs (Shan’ge)and experiencing local customs and inventions.)